There are also speculations that U.S.
Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, scheduled to be in the Czech Republic, will also appear at the conference, but this has not been officially confirmed. Rice is to be in Prague on the day when the conference begins, on July 8. She will sign the main treaty on the location of the U.S. radar in the Czech Republic. The conference, staged by the French Association of Aviation and Astronautics, is to be attended by representatives of the firms dealing with anti-missile defence such as Boeing and Raytheon that are to Czechs donate three more helicopters to Afghanistan ...
Czech ForMin wants Prague to ratify Lisbon treaty by year-end ... be in charge of the Czech project. Raytheon will conduct talks with Czech firms that are interested in the construction of the radar base, too. Jiri Hynek, president of the Association of Defence Industry, said Czech firms could provide the communication infrastructure such as radio transmitters and satellite communication. "I think we are able to manufacture everything but the radar station," Hynek said. In March, Czech firms were afraid that their involvement would only be limited to auxiliary work such as fencing off the construction site, construction of the base buildings, removal of snow, maintenance of roads and waste disposal. The situation later changed and Czechs are to have the opportunity to seek technologically more demanding deals. Hynek said it would be financially advantageous for U.S. companies to use their Czech counterparts. In January, a similar conference was held in Prague which resulted in the plan that U.S. anti-missile agency would found a consortium along with Czech scientific centres that would focus on the research of technologies related to the U.S. missile defence system. The Czechs and the USA have completed negotiations on the main "radar treaty" and negotiations on the complementing SOFA treaty, dealing with U.S. soldiers' status on Czech soil, are reportedly close to completion.
(Ceske Noviny)
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